German
A size of type between American and Saxon, 1+¹⁄₂-point type.
Industrial printing
388 entries in this trade.
go to bed
Of a newspaper: to finish being prepared for printing.
gods
The quadrats used by printers in throwing on the imposing stone, similar to the movement in casting dice.
gold blocking
A technique where gold foil or another metallic foil is applied using heat and pressure from an engraved block or die to emboss designs or patterns onto a surface.
gravure
A type of intaglio printing process, in which an image is engraved onto a rotating copper cylinder.
grease
Synonym of fat (“work containing much blank, profitable to the compositor”).
great primer
The size of type between English and paragon, standardized as 18-point, used in the printing of large-format English bibles.
guideword
A word under the right-hand side of the last line on a book page that repeats the first word from the following page.
gutter
One of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.
hair stroke
A fine line drawn out at the top or bottom of a letter.
halftone
A picture made by using the process of half-toning.
handman
One who assembles printing type by hand.
handpress
An early printing press operated by means of a handle that applied pressure on the form.
headband
A thin slip of iron on the tympan of a printing press.
headline
The line at the top of a page containing the folio or number of the page.
headpiece
A decorative page heading used at the start of volumes or chapters.
headstick
A straight piece of furniture placed at the head of a form, between the chase and the type.
height to paper
In typefounding, the length of a type from its face to its foot.
hellbox
A receptacle where cast metal sorts were thrown after printing.
hickey
A serif or other ornamentation on type.
homeset
The type used as a standard by a specific publisher.
hot metal
Printing type cast from molten metal; hot metal typesetting.
IJP
Initialism of inkjet printing.
imperial
A writing paper size measuring 30 × 22 inches, or printing paper measuring 32 × 22 inches.
impose
To lay (columns or pages of type, or printing plates) arranged in a proper order on the bed of a press or an imposing stone and secure them in a chase in preparation for printing.
imposing stone
The stone on which the pages or columns of type are imposed or made into forms.
imposing table
A work table, topped by an imposing stone, used by impositors in type-setting.
imposition
Arrangement of a printed product’s pages on the printer's sheet so as to have the pages in proper order in the final product.
impression
set of copies of a publication printed at one time having the same content, layout, pagination, etc.
imprimatur
An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies.
incunabulum
A book, single sheet, or image that was printed before the year 1501 in Europe.
incut
adjectiveIndustrial printing
Inserted in a reserved space of the text instead of in the main margin.
inferior
An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.
ink up
To apply ink to a roller in preparation for printing or to coat a roller with a preservative when not in use.
ink-block
A block or table onto which the ink is spread, which is then transferred by the rollers or inkballs.
insetter
A device for inserting pre-printed color segments into a monochrome publication.
intaglio
Any printing method in which the ink is laid upon the sunken parts of the printing form.
Intertype
A typecasting machine closely resembling the linotype, and using the same matrices.
Ionic
Of or relating to a kind of heavy-faced type.
jeff
To play or gamble with em quads, throwing them as dice.
jeffing
A dice game played with em quads.
jet
The sprue of a type, which is broken from it when the type is cold.
jobber
A job press or platen press.
keep down
To refrain from using capital letters more than absolutely necessary.
keyplate
The plate that prints the detail in an image.
kick
To work a press by impact of the foot on a treadle.
kicker
A device that periodically displaces a newspaper from the print production line, to aid in gathering the newspapers into fixed-size bundles.
knock up
To straighten up a stack of paper.
knockout
An event where a foreground color causes a background color not to print.
landscape
a mode of printing where the horizontal sides are longer than the vertical sides
Latin
The nonsense placeholder text (often based on real Latin) used in greeking.
lay
To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
lead out
To pad out (text) by inserting lead slugs between words.
leader
A piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press.
lean
Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
leporello
Any printed material (book, leaflet etc.) having such folds; a concertina.
letter
A single type; type, collectively; a style of type.
letter-quality printing
A printing method that produces solid letters that are as clear or clearer than those produced by a typewriter.
letterboard
A board on which matter in type is placed for storage or manipulation.
letterfounder
One who founds or casts letters or types.